1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic documents, Web pages, and portions or elements of electronic documents, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for creating electronic space on the virtual flipside of Web pages or elements, referred to as xe2x80x9cWeb Back Spacexe2x80x9d, and to allow additional information to reside thereon and for the Web Back Space and the information thereon to be easily accessed, managed, distributed, tracked and displayed.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic documents are key components in the transfer of electronic information. An electronic document is a non-executable computer file containing information for use in various applications such as word processing (Word), spreadsheets (Excel) and database management systems (dBase)
Electronic documents can display digital information to computer users on the Internet, the global network connecting a multitude of users. The World Wide Web (WWW) is a system of Internet servers designed to specially support formatted documents. The most common delivery unit of an electronic formatted document is a Web page. The Internet uses Web pages to display information to the Internet users. A Web page is an electronic document located on the WWW. Documents are created on the WWW using a standard language called Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). A specific site location on the WWW is referred to as a Web site. Each Web site contains a home page, which is the first document a user sees when first entering the site. The site may also contain different documents or pages.
A unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifies each Web page. A URL is a Web address that identifies a particular Web page and its location on the WWW.
The WWW uses a standard set of procedures or protocols defining how requests are formatted and transmitted. This set of standard protocols is called Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is a stateless protocol since each command is executed independently, without knowledge of the commands that came before it. When a user enters a URL in his or her browser, which is a software application used to locate and display Web pages, an HTTP command is sent to the Web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested Web page. Output, in HTML form, is sent to the user via the HTTP protocols and the user""s computer receives the requested, formatted Web page. When this Web page arrives at the user""s computer, the browser will normally store a local copy of the Web page in the end user""s local browser. This step is known as caching.
Electronic document elements refer to any discrete item within an electronic document page such as text, graphics, data, banners, links, or any other visible entity within the electronic document page. This may include a banner, such as a strip of graphics within an electronic document having a standard size containing advertising or other information in graphical form.
Web pages and Elements are two dimensional in nature. In other words, they are flat entities composed of a standard width and height. A user sees one page at a time and can therefore only interact with the information contained within the xe2x80x9cfour cornersxe2x80x9d of the displayed page or element.
This physical restriction places a challenge to Web site architects during the initial design. Web site architects and Web page designers must carefully decide and rank information in terms of importance so that it can be placed in the best possible location throughout the Web site and in the best possible location within the Web page itself.
Even after carefully designing and building a Web site, the end result could be a Web site that is very large, extensive and complicated to navigate. Finding specific information in such a complex Web site can be a time consuming and difficult task.
Web site architects may often find themselves running out of available space on a Web page. Information, logically associated with the information contained within the Web page may have to be left out.
Adding the possibility to display information on the back space of the same Web page or electronic document element allows the Web site architect to build a more condensed and logically organized version of the same Web site, and it will also allow the user to have access to information at a faster rate than with a conventional, one-sided Web page. This increase in speed is accomplished by a technique known as precaching, which xe2x80x9cpre-downloadsxe2x80x9d the information housed in the Web Back Space to the end user""s local browser.
The Web Back Space refers to the infinite amount of xe2x80x9cvirtual hidden spacexe2x80x9d behind both the Web page and the elements displayed thereon. It refers to anything not currently seen on the front page. Once created, this xe2x80x9cvirtual real estatexe2x80x9d may be used to store information. This technology is compatible with any media which displays electronic document pages or elements including but not limited to, Palm Pilots, WebTV (as in infomercials), and/or any future technology which displays electronic document pages, since the technology has a built-in capacity to be adapted for future technological developments.
Much like a cube which contains multiple, interconnected sides and surfaces, the multi-dimensional nature of the present invention allows the user to add information to each xe2x80x9csidexe2x80x9d, while assuring each side maintains a relationship with each other side.
The present invention contains code that creates additional back space on an electronic document page or electronic element. This task is accomplished by providing the Web site architect with the back space code. This back space code may be cut and pasted at any point during the process in order to create the back space on any electronic document page or element within a Web site. Upon the creation of the back space, a Back Space icon is activated.
Theoretically, an infinite number of back pages may be added to an electronic document page, or Web page. The created back space may remain devoid of information for a given length of time, said information to be added at a later time, or information may be created and stored on the newly-created space immediately after the back space has been created.
Today, however, a Web page that needs such additional information must depend on linking to a separate Web page to display such information.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a system and method that overcomes the restriction discussed above by providing the required technology to create the back space on a Web page or Web page element and to display information on the back space, in addition to the front side of the Web page or element, where said information located on the back space may or may not be related to the information located on the front side of the Web page.
It is, therefore, to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings of the prior art that the present invention is directed.
The present invention allows users to create and use the virtual back space of an electronic document page such as a Web page on the Internet, or an electronic document element and to house and display additional content information thereon.
In particular, the present invention provides a method for publishing information on the back side of an electronic document page comprising the steps of providing a user with a list of available electronic document pages, determining if the electronic document page contains information which is to appear on a back side of the electronic document page, adding the information to the back side of the electronic document page, linking the front side of the electronic document page to a respective back side of the electronic document page, displaying the front side of a requested electronic document page, providing triggering means to allow the user to display the back side of the electronic document page, and displaying the back side of the electronic document page.
In an alternate embodiment, the present invention provides a method for creating additional space on an electronic document page or element, for storing, displaying and managing the information contained thereon comprising the steps of compiling a list of available electronic document pages wherein each page has a front side, selecting an electronic document page, creating additional back space on the selected electronic document page, adding information to the back space of the electronic document page, determining if the electronic document page contains a back space and if the back space contains information, providing a list of available electronic document pages and their respective back space information, activating the back space, paring the front side of the electronic document page to its respective back space, if necessary, separating the front side of the electronic document page from its respective back space thereby leaving the back space empty for future use and allowing for the future input of information, displaying or transferring the electronic document page and the information contained thereon to the end user or a third party and once it is received, begin to send its respective back space information and caching such information in the end user""s local browser, displaying the front side of a requested electronic document page, notifying the user by audio, visual, or other means such as the displaying of a Back Space icon on the front side of the requested electronic document page after the back space information has been pre-cached in the end user""s local browser, providing triggering means to allow the user to display the back space of the electronic document page via the movement or click of a mouse or to display the back space after a predetermined amount of time, or by any other automatic triggering mechanism, and displaying the back space of the electronic document page.
In still another embodiment, the present invention provides means to send the information contained on the back space of the electronic document page via e-mail to another end user, and tracks and displays the number of times the back space of an electronic document page is displayed.
In yet another embodiment, the present invention also provides a means to select a specific electronic document element or elements on an electronic document page, to create a back space or use the pre-created back space and to flag it so the back space is managed, receives information and is pre-cached the same way the back space of an electronic document page is precached. Pre-caching is commonly used in the industry to optimize data transfer by pre-downloading a local copy of data accessed over a network to a specialized local buffer storage that is continually updated.
By providing Web site architects with the additional option to create and use the back space to store and display information, a new dimension is added that allows the infinite expansion of available space in which to place information. This new dimension is one that enhances web design and organizational capabilities and improves the speed at which information is delivered via the World Wide Web.
The new dimension creates the opportunity for Web Site architects to create entirely new Web sites and Web pages or modify existing Web Sites and Web Pages to contain information on the front side of a Web page and also on the created back space.
The present invention is designed to be implemented, deployed and managed on a single file server at a data center, and accessed via the Internet by all users. This model is referred to as an Application Service Provider (ASP) model. The present invention also supports the use of multiple file servers and distributed server farms, if needed, to improve response times and load balancing.
Under an ASP model users have immediate access to the entire set of modules via the Internet without having to perform any software installation to their computers. All is needed to access and use the invention is a computer browser and access to the Internet. Through a brief registration process, users open an account that enables them to use the invention and all its modules to perform the different tasks supported by the system, all via the Internet, without having to perform any local software installation. In this way, the Web site administrator need not install any software in order to use the invention.
New design implementations are possible in which the back space of the Web page or Web page element can be used to provide background, related, non-related, support and/or additional information in addition to the information being displayed on the front side of the Web page. The back space may also be used to house information entered by the user, such as e-mail messages, which may be forwarded to a remote user.
For example, information about a health care provider and its services may be placed on a Web page while information like directions to local health care facilities and names of contacts within the facility can be placed on the back space.
The present invention has additional applications like the placement and hosting of advertising materials on the back space of an electronic document page or element. Information may be in any form, including text, graphics, GIFs, advertisements, video, audio, streaming media, digital visual information, or any combination thereof. Virtually any application which requires the posting of information on a Web page can use the present invention to xe2x80x9cgluexe2x80x9d additional information to the xe2x80x9cWeb Back Spacexe2x80x9d of the initial, front page or element.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus to create the virtual space on the back of an electronic document page such as a Web Page, or on an electronic document page element.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus to allow information to be entered, stored and displayed on the back space of an electronic document page or element.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a means for gluing and ungluing the front page and the back space of an electronic document page or element.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a means of activating the back space of a Web page or element in order to display it upon a user""s computer screen.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method to pre-cache the information residing on the back space and pre-download it to the user""s local browser.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a means to select a specific electronic document element on an electronic document page and flag it so the back space of the electronic document element is pre-cached the same way the back space of an electronic document page is pre-cached.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide means to send the information contained on the electronic document back space via e-mail to another end user.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism to track the number of times the back space is displayed.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a report on the number of times the back space is displayed.
In accordance with these and other objects which will become apparent hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings.